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The Professionalization of Etching in the Netherlands
By the mid-1550s, etchings were becoming an important component of the stocks of enterprising publishers within the growing market for prints in the Netherlands. The technique had migrated from artists' studios and small circles of courtly enthusiasts to the broad art market, with its international reach. For financially minded publishers like Hieronymus Cock and Bartholomeus de Momper, etching offered an expedient alternative to engraving. Once the technique had been mastered, printmakers could produce large series of prints quickly and effectively, saving time and money. The wealthy port city of Antwerp, with its intellectual, art-loving public and its access to shipping, became a magnet for ambitious publishers, talented painters, and skilled printmakers. From Antwerp, publishers could relatively quickly circulate prints throughout Europe.
During this period, two general categories of etchers emerged: professional etchers, like Peeter van der Borcht and the brothers Jan and Lucas van Doetecum, who produced prints after the designs of other artists that displayed the precision of engraving; and painter-etchers, like Pieter Bruegel and Frans Floris, who executed their own remarkable, freely-sketched etchings. |